1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fiber/resin composite and a molded article obtained by molding the same. In particular, the present invention relates to a fiber reinforced molded resin article having a high impact strength and to a fiber/resin composite which is suitable as a raw material of the fiber reinforced molded resin article.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fiber-reinforced resin is an industrial material excellent in stiffness and heat resistance. Techniques for improving the impact resistance of the fiber reinforced resin are known. For example, JP-A-2002-241557 discloses a long fiber-reinforced propylene polymer composition, as a material which is capable of yielding molded articles of excellent mechanical strength, stiffness, impact resistance and endurance, that is composed of a composition made up of a modified propylene polymer which results from a modification of a propylene homopolymer with an unsaturated carboxylic acid or its anhydride and which has a melt flow rate of from 100 to 500 g/10 min, at least one substance selected from single substances, hydroxides and oxides of alkaline earth metals and glass fibers having a length of from 2 to 50 mm, a crystalline propylene-ethylene copolymer and a nucleating agent. However, there is a demand for further improvement in impact strength.
The object of the present invention is to provide fiber-reinforced molded resin articles having an impact strength higher than that of conventional fiber-reinforced molded resin articles and fiber/resin composites which are suitable as a raw material of the molded articles.
In view of such situations, the present inventors made investigations earnestly and they found that the above-mentioned object can be attained by the invention described below.
Specifically, the present invention is directed to a fiber/resin composite comprising fibers (A), a polypropylene resin (B) and a modified polyolefin resin (C), the weight ratio of the polypropylene resin (B) to the modified polyolefin resin (C), (B)/(C), being from 99.9/0.1 to 60/40, the modified polyolefin resin (C) having a melt flow rate of from 30 to 150 g/10 min, the fibers (A) being arranged parallel to each other in one direction, the composite having a length of from 2 to 100 mm along the direction in which the fibers (A) are arranged, the fibers (A) contained in the composite having a weight average length equal to the length of the composite, wherein the polypropylene resin (B) is composed of a propylene homopolymer segment (B-1) and a propylene-ethylene copolymer segment (B-2), the propylene homopolymer segment (B-1) having an isotactic pentad fraction of at least 0.980 and the content of the propylene-ethylene copolymer segment (B-2) in the polypropylene resin (B) being from 10 to 40% by weight. The invention is directed also to a molded article obtained by molding the fiber/resin composite.